Everything Happens for a Reason
by aliciameade
Summary: Paired up by a dating program that puts an expiration date on relationships, Beca and Chloe begin to question the system's logic. Yes, this is an AU of Black Mirror's "Hang the DJ." (No DJs are hanged.)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So, "Black Mirror." It's on Netflix. Have you ever watched it? You should. But it's rarely for the faint of heart. There are few bright spots, and generally, it highlights and exaggerates the worst aspects of humanity and its values.**

* * *

Dating fucking sucks.

She knows she's only 25 and she knows that's still _technically_ young and she has _plenty_ of time to meet someone.

But dating fucking sucks.

If she swipes right on one more person who turns out to be a total asshole, she's going to swear off romance altogether.

Which is why she decides to go for it - why not, right? What's she got to lose? The advertisements guarantee The System will find your perfect match. And a guarantee is a guarantee…

A car has dropped her off at the foot of a path, a massive, brightly lit mansion visible at the other end.

"Coach?" she says into her handheld device. It was an odd little thing. Not much more than a disc with a screen which responded to voice and touch commands. Kind of like a round phone, she'd figured when it arrived in her mailbox last week after subscribing.

 _"Yes, Beca?"_

"Where do I go?"

 _"Proceed to The Hub,"_ the melodic and almost non-robotic female voice responds.

With a deep breath, she starts walking.

* * *

The Hub is massive, and that is an inaccuracy of gross proportions. It's not a mansion. It's like if a mansion was actually the Mall of America.

She now understands why she was picked up at 6:00 pm. for a date scheduled for 7:45 pm. It took an hour to arrive and nearly an hour to walk (with the assistance of moving sidewalks, elevators, and escalators) to the restaurant where her date is to take place.

When she finds the maître d', she awkwardly holds up her device "Hey, uh...I'm…"

"Beca," the man says with a smile. "Right this way."

"Umm, right…" she says and follows him after rocking on her heels a few times.

The restaurant is filled with nothing but tables and booths for two. Every single one of them is occupied by a couple and it is obvious they are all dates and not there for a business dinner or two friends catching up over a glass of wine.

The only reason you're at The Hub is to date.

She's ushered into the only open booth in the place, the second from the entrance and she slides in on the side that lets her watch the door. She hopes her charcoal slacks and sleeveless black button-down are nice enough, but not too nice.

And then she sees her.

It's hard not to notice her.

Not that she knew who to expect; these first dates were the blindest of blind dates.

But Beca knew that's who she was there to meet.

She's hesitating in the entry; no maître d' is escorting her, and she's speaking at her device and then looking unsure at the response.

It makes Beca anxious because that means she just asked something about Beca and her reaction to the answer was questionable at best. She probably asked about her previous dating life or her family health history or criminal record.

None of those would have great results.

But then the girl takes a deep breath, scans the room, and Beca feels the floor drop out from under her when their eyes meet.

She crosses the room quickly and Beca, going into panic mode, jerks out of the booth to stand and greet her politely and in doing so manages to throw a fork across the room right as she arrives.

She rushes to grab it and by the time she's upright, the girl's in front of her with a slightly stiff smile.

"Sorry, fork," she says, holding it up as if it wasn't obvious.

"Chloe," the girl says with a wave.

 _Oh, God._ "No, no my name's not Fork." _Oh God, Beca._

"I didn't think it was."

"It's Beca. Um, do you want to sit down?" She gestures at the booth she nearly upended in her rush to stand. Anything to immediately erase what just happened from being the topic of potential conversation.

"Either that or we stand, right?" Chloe laughs but it's a nervous laughter and that makes Beca feel a little better.

But not much.

"Okay. Well, after you," she says stepping out of the way and Chloe takes a seat - right where Beca had been sitting.

"Oh that's - that's my side." She wants to punch herself as soon as she says it.

She makes to stand up. "Do you want to trade?"

"No, no. It doesn't matter. Sorry." _Jesus_. "I'm...I'm really fucking nervous." She smiles and hopes it's not too terrifying. "This is my first time using The System."

Chloe's eyes go wide. "Me, too!"

"Really?!" There's no way this girl is nervous about a date. Literally. No way. Not possible.

"Yeah, I'm...I could shit myself."

A bark of laughter escapes Beca and it surprises both of them. She hadn't expected the very picture of "Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice" to kick things off with that kind of language. But maybe that's what the spice was

"Yeah, you do look terrified."

Chloe gasps and Beca thinks it's unfair that someone who is so nervous can be so attractive. But there she is across from her with her wavy red hair and her killer blue eyes and her little black dress doing exactly that. "I do?!"

"You're shaking in your boots, dude."

Chloe sobers and squints."Or maybe trembling with revulsion?" She's teasing. This girl is _teasing_ Beca.

"Well, at least you didn't shit yourself."

"Are you sure about that?"

Beca laughs again. "Okay, new topic. No more shit."

"Yeah, no more of that. Food instead?"

"Definitely."

"How do we…" Chloe looks around the table and discovers what Beca had when she arrived; no menus.

Beca pulls her disc out of her purse. "Maybe we use these?"

Except when she asks it for a menu, it responds with, _"Menu choice already established."_

"Oh. Well. Just like magic."

And just like magic, a waiter arrives with said choices.

"I guess I'm a pasta girl," Chloe says with a nod at her plate.

"And I'm…" Beca looks at her own. "Crab cake?" She'd never entered any type of food preferences into The System when she subscribed; she didn't need to. That thing was just _in_ her brain.

With a shrug Chloe's digging in, so Beca follows suit. "It's good," Chloe says with a tight-lipped smile around her bite.

"Mine, too. Can I, uh...can I try yours?" She was starving and honestly - _one_ crab cake? What the hell, System?

Chloe glances around the restaurant. "Are we allowed to do that?"

Beca looks, too, and there is a Watcher at the entrance. Doing that. Just watching. Paying them and Chloe's pasta no mind.

"You know what? Fuck it." Chloe stabs a sauce-covered shell onto her fork and reaches across the table. "Open."

"Fuck it," Beca says with a grin as she lets Chloe feed her right off her own fork. "Ugh, that is so good; I'm jealous." She's still chewing as she looks around the restaurant to make sure they didn't really do anything wrong, and apparently...they've earned the Watcher's attention.

She turns back around with a gulp and focuses on Chloe instead.

"So we're both first-timers!"

Beca nods as she chews and tries to dial back her panic. For a first date, other than her horrific first impression and a disapproving glare, this date is going pretty well, considering.

"Should we check our expiration date?" Chloe asks.

Their expiration date. How long their relationship will last, factoring in all known but mostly unknown variables. It was fascinating, really. "Yeah, let's try it."

They both pull out their discs and she stares at hers, unsure of what to do next. She hadn't bothered to read the instructions when she received it. So she watches Chloe swipe at hers.

"It's under 'Info.' Yeah, we have to tap to reveal it at the same time," she says as she reads. "Okay, so, on three?"

"Wait - on three or after three?"

"Like, three, two, one, tap."

"Got it." Beca swipes to her reveal screen and nods.

"Sooo...three, two, one!" Chloe counts down and they both tap at their discs.

Beca holds her breath. It'd be great if it said like, six months, a year, even a few weeks. From the moment she saw her walk in, Beca felt like something was right with this girl. She watches the screen load to say -

"12 hours," Chloe says with what sounds like disappointment.

"Yeah."

Chloe puts down her disc and picks up her wine. "Okay."

"It's a little…"

"Yeah."

"A little short."

"It's a little short, isn't it?" Chloe asks, leaning forward earnestly.

She looks at her device again and the 12 hours is now an actual clock counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds until they will part ways forever.

"I didn't realize it would count down like that. That's so sad."

Beca's throat felt tight. Her eyes felt hot. _This was bullshit._ "Maybe we should eat quickly?" she cracks, hoping to lighten the mood a little so she doesn't do something super embarrassing like cry in front of a girl she met 20 minutes ago.

* * *

The thing about The System is that it is, well, a system.

The restaurant was chosen, menu planned, transportation arranged - all by it. And, true to form, a vehicle is waiting for them outside when they leave.

"So, this takes us to the place?" Chloe asks as she peers into the driverless car.

"I guess? I didn't really read the fine print. Um, after you?" She steps aside to let Chloe enter before walking around to get in on the other side.

The ride is quiet. She wants to say something but feels like anything she does say will be the wrong thing. The one thing she does manage is commenting on the size of the wall along which they are driving, which only receives a hum of agreement from Chloe.

Their car takes them to a quaint house with a porch swing. Number 473.

The car departs as soon as they exit it; The System's plan is for them to spend the night here.

"So...do you want to open it? Or should I?" Beca points at the scanner next to the door.

"Go ahead," Chloe says with a smile.

Beca's nervous again - or rather, more nervous than she's been all night, because apparently, she's about to spend the night with this girl who, by simply existing, _also_ makes her nervous. "Okay," she says as she reaches and she hopes her trembling hand isn't too obvious -

"Ha! Too slow!"

The outburst makes her jump and she sees Chloe's palm against the scanner and then sees Chloe grinning at her.

That helps. Chloe's good at breaking tension; much better than Beca is. She feels like she can breathe a little again and she leans back to push open the door after hearing it click. "Oh, God. It's a fucking crackhouse."

Chloe's face falls. "You're kidding."

"I am." She tries to smirk and not look like a psycho.

Chloe's smile returns and she pushes past Beca into the house.

It's the opposite of a crackhouse. Modern, but not cold. It's an open floor plan but a decorative privacy wall with an inlaid fireplace separates the sitting area from what Beca can recognize as a bedroom. The lights are low, preset for them by The System. She watches Chloe move through the space with a quiet energy, turning in a slow circle as she checks it all out.

"It's nice," Chloe says and then clears her throat. "I...like that lamp." She points at a relatively unimpressive lamp on a table behind Beca.

"Yeah that's...that's a great lamp."

Chloe giggles and Beca's relieved she knew she was teasing. "Shut up."

They're both slowly migrating closer to the bedroom and she can feel the awkward energy bouncing between them because they both know why they're there tonight, what they are welcomed, almost expected to do.

She follows Chloe up the two steps into the bedroom and stops by her side at the foot of the bed, both of them staring at it like it's a monster. And then Chloe is moving again - away from her toward a small panel on the solid wall next to the bed. "Bathroom," she says with a nervous smile as she taps the panel to slide the wall open to gain entrance.

"Yeah. Right." Beca shoves her hands in her pockets. "I'm just going to -" She jerks one back out and points behind her with her thumb. "...over there." She watches the wall close behind Chloe and then she hurries into the other room and yanks out her device to speak into it in a hushed, desperate voice. "Are we supposed to just have sex with each other?!"

It's not that she's _opposed_. Chloe's beautiful. Hot. Sexy. Funny. Doesn't seem to want to run away from her terrible attempts at humor. But it's their first date and...and that seems like it's too much, too fast. And they only have eight hours left together anyway, so should they even bother? What if it's terrible?

...What if it's amazing?

 _"Participants are not required to take any specific action."_

Well, that's not very fucking helpful. "Yeah, but...we can, right? People do it even if they're only together for a little bit?"

 _"If that's your decision."_

"It's up to us?"

 _"It's up to you."_

She hears the panel open behind her and shoves her device in her pocket hurriedly and throws herself onto the first thing she finds - a loveseat - to make it seem like she wasn't just asking artificial intelligence whether or not she should sleep with this girl. "I can just sleep here tonight." Yeah, that's the better decision.

"Don't be silly." Chloe shakes her head. "You won't fit on that. You'll mess up your neck."

"No, actually, I'm…" she moves and lays down, easily fitting on the loveseat when she bends her knees a bit. "I'm small. It's fine."

Chloe just shakes her head again. "The bed's big. We can both fit in it."

Beca feels her pulse start to race; she'd made the decision to forego anything physical tonight, but Chloe...is inviting her to bed. "Yeah...yeah, okay," she says as she pushes herself up and off the couch.

* * *

It's dark. They're in bed, both staring at the ceiling, wearing pajamas they found in a bedroom dresser. They'd each changed in the bathroom with the door closed.

"It must have been crazy before The System," Chloe says quietly into the still air above them.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, people had to do the whole relationship thing by themselves. Figure out who they want to be with."

"Yeah that's...that was me. Asshole after asshole and I'm just supposed to pick one? How am I supposed to know which one is the right one."

"Right!" Chloe sat up a little to turn on her side to face Beca. "And if it wasn't working, you had to figure out how to break up with them."

"I _hate_ breaking up with people," Beca says, finding herself easing into conversation more normally than when they first lay down.

"This is so much simpler."

" _Way_ better."

"It's really weird, though…" Chloe says quietly and turns to her back again.

"Yeah...it is." Beca shifts and straightens her arm to rest by her side and feels the warmth of Chloe's a few inches away.

They lay there in the silence and Beca wonders if she should say something more or if they should try to go to sleep, and she's about to push toward sleep when she feels a hand, slow as can be, ease over her own and intertwine their fingers.

It makes Beca's heart pound more than any of their conversations did.

And that is how she falls asleep.

* * *

The House wakes them up with a gentle increase in natural light. They've both shuffled around in their sleep but Beca can feel Chloe's hand resting between her shoulder blades as she stirs, and it's warm. Just...warm.

They rise and dress with quiet smiles and Beca tries not to be sad. This is just how The System works. They aren't meant to be. Someone else out there is her perfect match, and Chloe isn't it.

Though if they were out there instead of in here, Beca's pretty sure she would never break up with this girl.

But they aren't out there.

Beca stands aside to let Chloe step out of the house first and onto the front lawn.

"Well then…" Chloe says with a smile and she's dancing around a little in place, and her steps bring her closer.

Beca watches it happen until Chloe's right in front of her. "So…"

Chloe tugs at the lapel of the blazer Beca'd worn last night to protect against the cool evening air. "Thanks for being my first."

Beca's about to make a joke when a mutual beep sounds from their pockets and they fish out their devices.

They're counting down from 20 seconds.

She frowns at it. "Oh. Yeah."

"I guess it's time."

"It was great. This was...you were nice." Nice? She should have said extraordinary; all they did was talk and she knew Chloe was extraordinary.

"So were you." Chloe looks like she's trying not to cry and it makes Beca want to scream. "If we...if we had this time again, you could _totally_ hit this, by the way."

That jerks Beca right out of her anger and into another type of less angry-anger. "What! You...I didn't want to be...I didn't know…"

Chloe shrugs and gives her another sad smile. "Sorry."

"Yeah, well...you could hit this, too." She has literally nothing to lose at this point, so.

Chloe scrunches her nose. "We kind of messed that up, didn't we?"

Beca just sighs and pushes a hand through her hair. "Yeah. We did."

Their devices chime and she feels Chloe take her hand, giving it one last squeeze and they part, walking opposite directions to the two waiting vehicles to drive them home.

Alone.

* * *

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2

Chloe's running.

That sounds dramatic; she's not dramatic. Well, not _that_ dramatic.

She's just running. In the park. By the pond with the ducks.

Maybe she's trying to run away from how it felt to have to walk away from Beca that morning.

She's been bitching at her device ever since.

"I don't get how that was even worth my time. What's the point?" She's in a medium jog, slow enough that she can carry on a conversation. "I mean, 12 hours?"

" _Even your reaction to a brief encounter provides The System with valuable information."_ That...did make sense. It was kind of a trial run. The System has to get to know her to work. That's the whole point.

"But I didn't even do anything. The System probably thinks I'm a prude now. And I'm not. I'm not a prude."

" _The system makes no moral judgments."_

She stops, hands on her hips as she catches her breath. It's nice out, cool but not cold. She likes the pond with its reeds and cattails and ducks and still-as-glass surface. She approaches its edge and kicks around until she finds a nice flat rock, winds up, and watches it skip perfectly - one, two, three, four times before sinking.

Her device chimes. "Now what?"

" _Another relationship."_

"Already?"

* * *

"But how do I know she wasn't the perfect match for me?" Beca's sitting on her bed in front of her screen, tinkering with melodies and hooks to try to distract herself from the piercing blue eyes that keep floating in front of her. "She was -"

" _Your Ultimate Compatible Other has not yet been selected."_

"I know, but -"

" _The System gains insight as each participant progresses through numerous relationships and uses the gathered data to eventually select an Ultimate Compatible Other."_

"On your Pairing Day. Yeah, I know. It always finds your perfect match." She rolls her eyes as she says it.

" _In 99.8% of cases."_

"But I have to go through a shit ton of relationships first to find them." _How is this an upgrade from the classical method again?_

" _That is correct."_

"Great."

Her device chimes and she checks it.

"Another one? Tonight?"

" _That is correct."_

"I guess I...should shower."

* * *

Chloe's waiting in a booth at a new restaurant.

A man at the entrance speaking with the maître d' catches her eye and hoooly hell. He is _hot._

"Please tell me that's him," she whispers into her device as she waits to see where he's directed.

" _I cannot confirm identity until a personal introduction is made."_

She shoves the disc into her purse and smiles because he's walking to her table.

"Hi," he says with a sparkling brown-eyed smile and an expensive-looking jacket.

"Hi," she breathes and watches him sit.

" _Identity confirmed."_ She shoves the device further in her purse to muffle it and offers her best smile.

"I like your hair," he says with a nod.

She touches it nervously. "Oh, thank you. I...like yours, too."

"Grew it myself."

Oh gosh, he's funny, too. She laughs and suddenly feels like she's laughing too hard over a joke that maybe wasn't as funny as she's making it out to be because he's looking at her like she's a bit off her rocker. She clears her throat and cuts her laugh. "Um, so, dinner?"

* * *

Beca's late; she doesn't mean to be, but she lost track of time in the shower thanks to a pretty epic playlist she'd put together which required an extended in-shower performance.

She wishes she'd just forced a cancellation. She isn't ready for this. She doesn't even know if she _can_ cancel. The people in charge of running things the right way seem to take their jobs seriously.

She's pretty sure she saw one of them with a taser clipped to their pants, and like...okay dude. Chill. We're literally just looking for love here.

Anyway. She's shown to a booth and sees a blonde is there already eating. "Um, hey," she says, and the woman looks up from her plate. "I'm Beca."

The woman observes her for a moment and then offers one of the curtest, most forced smiles Beca's ever seen, and that's saying a lot considering herself. "Aubrey. I've been waiting for a while."

"I - sorry. I...I got notified pretty last-minute and it took me longer to figure out what to wear than I meant to."

She feels Aubrey's eyes pass over her again and fill with disapproval. "Really? And that's what you went with?" Apparently, jeans, boots, and a white blouse weren't up to her standards.

"You...started eating already?"

"I was hungry."

"Oh. Yeah...of course you were. Sorry." She takes her seat in the booth and is pretty sure she wants to kill herself if this encounter is to extend one minute longer.

"Okay, let's get this over with." Aubrey reaches into her small purse and pulls out her device. "Let's check our expiration date."

 _Oh, thank GOD._ "Yeah, let's do that." She pulls her own out of her pocket and pulls up the screen and they tap them together.

Beca's stomach falls into her shoes.

"One year." Aubrey's voice is flat. "We...have each other for a year? This...it has to be a mistake. Coach, is this a mistake?"

At least she's dreading and hating this already as much as Beca is.

" _This is not a mistake."_

"Jesus Christ." Aubrey pinches the bridge of her nose and it, somehow, makes her look even more pinched and constipated.

Beca's not happy either, but like...she doesn't have to be _offensive_ about it like Aubrey is. "There...there has to be a reason. Right? That's the point of all of this." She's interrupted by her food arriving. No crab cake tonight; actual food. Indian, in fact. A plate full of chicken and curried rice. "Look on the bright side." She tries a joke. If they have a year, they need to be able to joke, at least a little. "Chicken tikka masala!"

Aubrey looks up at her sharply. "What?"

"Chicken tikka...it was a joke." _I know it was a bad one, but really, lady? Lighten up._

"You're the kind of person who makes jokes." She lifts her eyebrows when she says it; the judgment is oozing off of her. She sets down her fork in exchange for her wine and takes a long drink of it.

* * *

Chloe's maybe a little buzzed. She's having a great time. Tom is handsome and smart but still kind of dumb in that way she likes men to be dumb, and funny, and every time he takes a drink, he lets out a sound of satisfaction. "Okay, let's check them. Ready?" She holds up her disc.

He smiles at her. "Ready."

"Three, two, one!" They tap.

She looks.

He nods. "Interesting. Nine months."

She smiles and puts her disc down. It's not forever. It's not even a year. But at least it's not 12 hours.

"Cheers," he says as he lifts his glass and so does she.

He finishes with a sound of satisfaction.

* * *

"This pretty much looks like my last one," Tom says as they wander through the house.

She's following him and steps out of her heels along the way. "How many of these have you had?"

"Relationships? This is five. Guess I'm kind of a veteran now."

She laughs and keeps following him until the bedroom. He continues, hopping up the stairs, but her feet bring her to a halt.

"I'm just going to jump in the shower," he says with a nod over his shoulder toward the bathroom.

She smiles. "Okay." She sounds nervous, but it's an excited kind of nervous. Or an unsure kind of nervous.

* * *

He's back ten minutes later, wearing nothing but a towel around his hips, and finds her waiting in the dining area. "Hey," he says with a warm smile.

"Oh hi. Nothing. I mean...hi." She sets down the cup she's been spinning in circles on the table and stands.

"So, here's the thing," he starts. "If you're okay with it since this is relationship five for me, I've figured out that it works best if we just have sex right away instead of waiting."

She feels her body heat. She's...not opposed. In fact...maybe she wants to. He _is_ hot, after all. They do have nine months together. She hasn't had sex in a few months. "Yeah. Sure."

"It just breaks the ice. We'll know how it's going to go earlier. That's all."

She smiles and wills herself forward a couple steps. "Yeah, no. That makes total sense."

"So, I'm consenting to everything now…" Tom taps at his device a few times and it chimes. "Whenever you're okay doing the same -"

She pulls out her device and taps on it quickly. It chimes.

* * *

Holy _shit_. Like, Chloe's had some good sex in her life. She's not a prude. (She's not a slut, either.) She knows what she likes and she isn't shy to tell her partners what she likes and she asks the same of them.

It always leads to _amazing_ sex.

And sex with Tom is... _amazing._ The kind of sex she knows is going to leave her sore in the good way in the morning. The kind of sex she knows is going to give her at least three orgasms.

* * *

Beca's trying.

 _Really_ , she's trying. She hopes Aubrey knows she's trying, because she is, and it's just...not working.

She knows it's not working. Maybe it would be better if Aubrey didn't think she was trying.

Aubrey's barely wet and she's trying to find her G-spot and rub her clit at the same time and it's just...not working.

And Beca knows what she's doing.

But this is just not working.

And she's trying. Hard. She's panting, and Aubrey is little more than a dead fish beneath her.

"Tikka masala," Aubrey says with a disgusted face as she angles her head away from Beca's.

She's confused first, then realizes.

Her breath. Full of curry. Like...okay, she could have brushed her teeth before this but Aubrey didn't say anything when they were awkwardly making out 15 minutes ago.

"Sorry."

"Talking makes it worse!"

So Beca shuts up.

"No, no. You're going to have to use both hands and get out of my face."

"Fine." So she slides down, not even bothering to be sexy or do something like kiss the woman's nipples, because she'd probably just criticize that, too. She kneels between her legs and uses both hands, and while it's easier, Aubrey's reactions don't change.

"Faster?" Aubrey asks, and Beca can tell that she's making the weakest attempt to not be hyper-critical, and at least that's something.

So Beca moves her fingers into her more quickly.

"Yeah, just...more motion? Not just in and out. I'm not a filing cabinet. That's boring. More side to side."

Beca understands asking for what you like in bed; it's how you get what you like in bed. But Aubrey's not really asking. She's just directing. But Beca tries. "Like this?"

"No, not really."

* * *

Chloe's covered in sweat and she loves it.

What a great first date.

She watches Tom's fit body half sit up to take a drink of water from the glass on the bedside table and exhale a satisfied, "Aaaah."

"Aaaah," she mimics. It's funny. He does it _every_ single time.

"What?" he asks.

"Nothing."

He takes another drink and does it again.

* * *

Beca doesn't sleep. She just stares at the ceiling willing time to pass more quickly while Aubrey sleeps beside her until she picks up her device and clicks it open.

Mockingly, it displays a countdown of 365 days.

She turns it off and waits for morning.

* * *

She holes up in her recording studio the next day. She needs to find peace.

"So I can't just walk away?"

" _That is correct. One day, it will provide you with the Ultimate Match."_

"Yeah. One day."

* * *

She's been dragged to an event hosted by The System. Of course, with Aubrey. It was mandatory and built into their schedule. A couple's Pairing Day. It was at a nice outdoor venue at least, full of trees and manicured hedges and consisting of nothing but other couples.

The moment they join the others she and Aubrey exchange looks and Aubrey departs with haste, much to their mutual relief. To do what? Beca doesn't know. Or care.

She wanders, exchanging as pleasant-as-she-can-manage smiles with others, and then she sees her.

Chloe, a few yards away.

She's positively radiant. She's laughing and playing with her hair and talking to a man who leans in and kisses her.

Awesome.

She and Aubrey are forced to reunite for the main event of the evening - the couple who's been assigned their Perfect Match encouraging everyone in attendance that it will work eventually and to not give up hope.

* * *

As soon as possible, they separate again, but as always, they can't make it far. Beca's pretty sure everything is designed to force assigned couples to spend as much time together as possible and she understands why that would be the case.

But she doesn't have to like it.

They wind up across from each other at the buffet, of course. Beca doesn't notice until she's shoving a breadstick into her mouth.

"Garlic bread?" Aubrey's sharp voice makes her look up. "Thanks."

Beca narrows her eyes and takes another, larger bite and it succeeds in making Aubrey walk away in a huff. She's definitely not going to brush her teeth before bed tonight.

She's still busy congratulating herself when she feels someone grab her elbow and offer a chipper, "Hi!"

She already knows before she turns that it's Chloe in her cute dress and cardigan and Beca has a mouthful of garlic bread and does her best to mumble a hello without spitting breadcrumbs all over her.

"Was that your…" Chloe asks watching Aubrey leave.

"Mmm, yeah." She swallows and wishes she had a glass of water handy. "Aubrey."

"Ah. Aubrey," Chloe repeats in a way Beca can't quite put her finger on. It's teasing but implies she knows something. Or wants to know something. Or assumes something.

She finally gets the driest bread in the world down her throat and offers her first genuine smile in months. "You look nice."

Chloe's about to reply when the man she was laughing with earlier appears at her side and places an arm around her waist. "Oh, Tom! This is...this is Beca!"

"Hey, Tom."

"Sup." _Wow, a real charmer._

"We were together for a little bit," Chloe offers, and Beca wishes she wouldn't have. It was 12 hours. It doesn't even really count. "Right before we -"

Beca straightens her back and slaps on her best fake smile. "You guys look great together."

Tom doesn't reply; he just takes a sip of his beer and lets out an unnecessarily loud exhale like he's in a soda commercial. Because that's not annoying or anything. She hopes Chloe doesn't have to listen to that all the time. But she does see a flash of annoyance cross Chloe's features, and she guesses she probably does.

* * *

Chloe can't sleep.

She hadn't expected to see Beca tonight, though part of her knew she would. Everyone would be there, so of course, Beca would be there.

She thought she'd been able to move past her, but as soon as she spotted her rolling her eyes at the blonde she'd arrived with, she knew she was lying to herself.

The 12 hours spent with Beca had been the best 12 hours of her adult life. They weren't perfect, they weren't without awkwardness or embarrassment. They didn't even get to know one another.

But they were the best.

Tom is asleep next to her, his arm at his side, and she's thinking about Beca and how Beca's hand felt in hers that night they spent together just laying in bed holding hands. She inches her fingers across the covers and slips her hand into his.

It's not the same, but she closes her eyes and wills herself to imagine it's Beca.

The contact, unfortunately, manages to wake him and she tries not to show her disappointment when he rolls onto his side and then over her to kiss her. And kiss her again. And again, in that way Chloe knows means he wants something, and she's really not in the mood for sex, but maybe he'll help her forget.

She does forget. She forgets she's with Tom because he disappears under the sheet and she can't see him so it's easy for her to imagine it's Beca's tongue against her.

She comes quickly.

And then she's snapped right out of it at the loud exhale of satisfaction from between her legs.

It's not even flattering. It's just _aggravating._

He does it again with his water once they're settling in to go back to sleep, and she's had it. She's as polite as she can be when she says, "You know how you make that sound?"

"What sound?"

"Aaaah."

"Do I do that?"

"Yeah. Like, all the time."

"Does it bug you?"

"Welllllll...yeah. It does. Kinda." She wishes she could take back the 'kinda.'

Tom smiles. "I'll try not to do it then."

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	3. Chapter 3

Five months.

Somehow, Beca has survived seven months living with Aubrey Posen who hates every molecule of Beca's existence. They barely speak. They look at each other even less. Their biggest interaction is the daily fight over who gets to shower first, and Beca just lets Aubrey win that.

It's not worth the energy when she could sleep longer instead. A win-win, technically.

* * *

Tom still _aaah_ 's when he drinks.

Chloe's sure she's going to lose it if she hears it one more time, because it always happens one more time.

She's lived with it for seven months.

Two more to go.

Maybe she can simply deprive Tom of all liquids? He doesn't need water to survive, right?

* * *

He does survive. Because she's not a terrible person, obviously.

She feels their initial hot and heavy romance fizzling. It fizzles week after week until it's nothing but a curl of smoke from an extinguished candle.

Their parting hug is awkward.

* * *

Not even a week passes when she has another relationship notification.

He's nice. Handsome.

36 hours.

The sex is good.

Another guy.

36 hours.

He's built like a professional athlete.

She shakes his hand when they part ways like it was a business transaction because it might as well have been.

That's how it goes. Person after person. None more than a day and a half.

She's grown to resent the sound her device makes as much as she resented the sound of Tom drinking water.

But there it is again. Chiming.

* * *

Beca and Aubrey are standing roughly 20 feet apart watching their devices countdown the final seconds. It feels like the end of a prison sentence.

Aubrey walks away without saying goodbye.

* * *

Beca flees to her studio. It's hers. No one else's. And best of all, Aubrey isn't there.

The only person who is is her Coach, and that's not really a person at all.

"Now I know what it's like to live with someone I hate with the fire of a thousand suns. Is that useful for The System?"

" _Everything happens for a reason."_

She scoffs and it's cut off by a chime.

Another relationship. Another first date tonight. "Seriously?"

* * *

She's dreading it and somehow shows up early and dreads it even more when she's shown to the same fucking booth as the night she met Chloe. She's even wearing the same jacket.

She sits where Chloe sat and tries to absorb her essence in some way.

She expects the worst. Another terrible date. Another person who will hate her because she sits weird or parts her hair wrong or any other myriad reasons Aubrey had at the ready.

What she doesn't expect is for Chloe to show up.

"Oh my God." She nearly chokes on the water she's slipping. "Hi," she says, scrambling out of the booth. She can't even believe it.

"Wow." Chloe smiles and it lights up Beca's insides. "Hi."

Beca's wrapped up in a hug and she inhales. She'd forgotten, and desperately missed, how Chloe smells.

She smells like flowers. Not one specific flower. Just...flowers. All of them. "Is this...is this right?" She lets go of Chloe because it's probably been too long of a hug.

"Seems like it." Chloe shrugs. "I didn't think The System would hook us up again."

"Me, neither!" They sit down and Beca knows she's grinning like an idiot. But she figures it's okay, because Chloe kind of is, too, and that makes her smile even harder. "I hope it's right."

Chloe lifts her device. "Coach, are we at the right table?" She looks at Beca while they await the quick answer.

" _Yes, that is correct._ "

Fucking YES. Beca almost fist pumps but instead she wrangles herself to a, "Well, okay then!" She grabs her device to view the expiration date.

"Wait." Chloe grabs her forearm and her hands feel like butter. "Can we...can we not check it?"

She swallows. "Why not?"

"I'm just...sick of it. The System's bouncing me from person to person, fling after fling. And I know they're meaningless and I get, like, detached. It's like I'm not really there. I mean, the other week I was with this guy -"

Beca swallows and tries to not be jealous about all the flings Chloe's had while she's suffered through a year with Aubrey consisting of little more than cold stares, harsh words, and rare, almost always terrible sex (there was that one singular time where they were both so angry it was actually pretty great) that was borne only of biological desperation and forced cohabitation. She tries not to be jealous that Chloe slept with these people and not her, though Beca didn't make a move.

"I don't even remember his name. But I literally had an out-of-body experience. I watched the whole thing from a chair on the other side of the room. Sex is weird when you're not the one having it and you don't care about watching it."

At least there's that, that Chloe hadn't liked it, or, seemingly, any (or at least most) of the other experiences she's had. At least Chloe and she had mutually agreed when they parted a year ago that they both would have been okay having sex.

"I get it. I mean, long-term is just as bad. You're watching the clock, counting down the hours, the minutes…"

"Oh my gosh, I've totes been there," Chloe gushes with sincerity, and Beca wonders what was so terrible about perfect Tom. Or if it was even Tom she's referring to.

"Okay. Yeah, let's not check the expiration."

Chloe smiles. "Yeah." She extends her hand for shaking. "It's a deal."

Beca smiles and shakes it. "Deal."

* * *

They're delivered to the same house where they'd spend their first night together.

She definitely remembers what Chloe said to her when they said goodbye a year ago. That they'd messed up. That if they had it to do over again, she wanted to sleep with Beca - and do more than just sleep.

They both swipe to consent and stand in the quiet dark of the bedroom smiling nervously at one another. They both know it's happening this time and the energy is palpable.

"So…" Chloe says with a smile and a shy step forward.

Beca feels itchy all over in the best possible way. "So…"

Chloe nods at the bed and winks. "We might as well."

Beca takes a deep breath. "I suppose we have to." She knows they're both teasing each other and it's a fucking _relief_ to be in this situation with someone she wants to be with and who, apparently, wants to be with her as well. "Don't know how much time we have."

Chloe takes another step closer. "Yeah, it could be ten minutes." And another, sticking her tongue out after she says, "Think you can last ten minutes with me?"

Beca's offense shoots up but Chloe's smirking, her eyes narrowed in challenge and is still step by small step getting closer to her. "Fuck you," she laughs and thinks about Chloe's implication by punctuating her challenge with her tongue.

"We're getting to that."

Her offense drops and now it's heat that's flooding her because Chloe's right in front of her and her hands are trailing down the lapels of the very same blazer Beca wore on their first first date and looking very much like she wants to kiss her. Beca's leaning in when -

"Wait."

She almost gets whiplash.

"One of us should get undressed first."

"What?" Beca shakes her head, confused. "Why only one of us?"

Chloe just twists her hips back and forth making her skirt swish against Beca's thighs. "It'll be funny."

She's not quite sure what's so funny about that, but if it means getting naked...she squares her chin. "Okay then. Take off your dress."

"No, no," Chloe says with a laugh and takes a step back and points at her. "It was my idea."

Beca doesn't want her moving further away; she only wants Chloe to be closer and closer still, so she relents and pulls off her jacket to toss onto the chair. She turns, shy despite her spiking arousal and other impending actions, and starts fiddling with the buttons on her shirt. But then she turns back and drops her hands. "This is embarrassing."

Chloe bites her lip. "I'll make it up to you in a minute."

It's enough to get Beca moving again and with a huff she turns away and keeps working on the buttons.

She feels Chloe's presence grow closer and it's accompanied by a teasing sing-song of, "I'm gonna see your boooobies," and it makes Beca want to curl up and hide while somehow also making her want to throw Chloe onto the bed and ravage her. She decides that's what Chloe is - a living embodiment of contradictions: Beca can easily imagine her giving a lapdance and stopping to cuddle a dog that happens to walk past at the time.

"Shut up," she grumbles and finishes the last button.

"I'm gonna see your -"

"Yeah, okay, I know," she says, more impatient than irritated and she turns to mouth off some more but is instead cut off and pushed backward by Chloe's lips on hers.

She sighs into it but doesn't get comfortable; there's nothing slow and comfortable about what's happening right now. She kisses Chloe back and hears a low moan get cut off like Chloe's trying to control herself. Her hands are on Chloe immediately; she's waited more than a year to touch her like this, to feel her arms and shoulders and back and neck under her hands as they kiss. As they breathe. As Chloe pulls Beca's open shirt off her body before pushing her onto the bed and straddling her hips.

* * *

They don't sleep.

After all, they don't know how much time they have together.

But the sex...Chloe laughs to herself. She thought she had good sex all figured out. She thought she knew what good sex was. She thought she was having good sex with Tom.

But that was only because she'd never had it with Beca.

Six orgasms, she counted as she thought back trying to recall every mind-blowing time Beca had brought her over the edge. Or was it seven? There's a gray area of time she can't quite remember because two of them happened back-to-back and she could barely breathe let alone think.

It had been four for Beca and it would have been more if Beca hadn't begged her to stop.

They're quiet now, just laying side by side as they had their first night. Staring at the ceiling.

But Chloe turns to her side and reaches down to slip her hand into Beca's and she sees her smile.

She's missed how that felt.

* * *

They're strolling through a park, lush with green grass and tall trees bordering the path they're walking. Chloe'd told her it was her favorite place in The Hub. She felt free there.

Beca likes it, too, and she likes that Chloe's holding her hand, and it's relaxing even though they are debating the methodology and validity of The System that has brought them together for an indefinite length of time.

"What if none of this is actually being analyzed or whatever?" Chloe asks as they walk. "What if this is all just random selection and we all just go with it because we think it's not random because that's what we signed up for?"

"Yeah. But people do find The One. It has a 99.8% success rate, remember?"

"But how do we know they're perfect matches? What if all that's happening is that it's exhausting us with serial monogamy until it decides to label someone as The One and you just...settle?" Chloe stops them and turns to face her and wraps her arms around Beca's neck. "And then you spend the rest of your life telling yourself you didn't."

Beca smiles and lets her arms settle around Chloe's waist. "And here I had you pegged as a romantic."

"Oh, I am." Chloe's smile is sly and then they're kissing, long and slow in a gazebo overlooking the pond.

"Wanna know my theory?" Beca asks when they part.

"Sure."

"Okay. So, let's say The System isn't random, that it's as high-tech as they say." She pulls her device from her coat pocket. "And using these things, it's listening and watching and building this big profile about who we are and what we like and don't like and how we react and relate to other people. Every crazy thought, your dreams, your weaknesses, and -"

"And your wacky theories?" Chloe's mocking her, but only a tiny bit.

"Yeah. So if it's everything in your head, does it have thoughts?"

"What - the device?"

"The System, yeah."

Chloe grins at her and advances, threatening to tickle but never doing so; Beca hates being tickled and she knows. "So now you're going to say, 'What if that's us and we're stuck in a simulation?!'" She's dramatic about it, laughing as she says it.

Beca just shrugs. "How would we know?"

They stare at each other for a moment and then she jerks from a sharp pinch on her nipple. "Ow, hey!"

But Chloe just giggles and starts walking away. "See? You're not dreaming."

She's still cradling her poor boob when she says, "Maybe I was programmed to say, 'Ow'!"

* * *

Days pass. Weeks. Beca's in heaven living with Chloe. Life with her is easy. She feels at ease around her and Chloe seems at ease, too. She likes to watch Chloe sleep and is always nervous to sleep herself, dreading the chime of her device alerting her to the impending doom of their relationship.

Chloe wakes and catches Beca watching her nap and smiles up at her easily as she sits up, and then stands up, and Beca reaches for her hips to pull her down.

"C'mere," Beca says with a lazy smile but Chloe's twisting out of her hold and walking away.

"No. You come here," Chloe winks as she walks backward toward the bathroom and then out of sight. She hears the bathtub faucet turn on a moment later.

It's killing her, really, the unknown.

This could all end right now. Or tomorrow. Or next month or in 15 years or never and she just wants to know how much time she has with her.

It hurt to lose Chloe after 12 hours.

Losing her again, after all this...she doesn't know if she could bear it.

She could look. Three quick taps and she'd know. And maybe they could overcome it, if it wasn't what they wanted.

She pulls her disc out from her pocket and stares at its blank screen, and then shoves it away again. They promised.

She joins Chloe in the bath and it's fun and sexy and full of bubbles and mutual sighs of pleasure and Beca hangs back a few extra minutes in the tub after, watching Chloe dry herself and wrap a towel around her to leave the room.

Beca stares at her pants crumpled on the floor where her disc lives.

* * *

They go to bed and she listens to Chloe breathing quietly beside her.

She's so happy. _So_ fucking happy. But she's in agony. Plain and simple: agony.

She rolls over and stares at her disc on her nightstand and picks it up, then eases out of bed.

She stares at it while she walks.

When she's far enough away, she wakes it. "Coach?"

" _Hello, Beca."_

"I've gotta know."

" _What would you like to know?"_

"The expiration date for Chloe and me. I need to know how long I have her." There's an extended silence, rare for the device. "You're not going to talk me out of it?"

" _Would you like me to talk you out of it?"_

"Yes. No. I, uh…" she shakes her head, "don't know."

The device beeps and the TAP TO REVEAL screen appears.

She stares at it. Quite literally, it holds the answer to the rest of her life. She drops her hand so she doesn't have to look at it. She can't. Shouldn't. She promised. They promised each other.

She holds her breath. "Fuck it." She taps the screen.

 _Five years._

She exhales.

Not forever. She wanted forever. But five years isn't terrible. She had no idea what she would do or how she would recover after five years living with Chloe, but she would take five years over one year.

The device chimes and the status ring of light circulates red.

" _Recalibrating."_

She holds her breath. Maybe it's wrong! Maybe it's going to say 10 or 15 or 50 or -

 _Three years._

"What? No." It's beeping at her with an alarm. "Coach?" She taps the screen.

" _Recalibrating."_

"Coach, it's getting shorter." She moves further through the house so she doesn't wake Chloe until she's standing on the front lawn.

" _One-sided observation has destabilized the expiration date."_

 _18 months._

"What?" Panic. Panic is rising within her.

" _One-sided observation has destabilized the expiration date. Recalibrating."_

"Because I looked at it on my own, it made it shorter? That's bullshit!" She feels tears welling.

" _That is correct."_

"Why?"

" _Everything happens for a reason."_

 _2 months._

 _Oh my God._ "Well, undo it then! Make it go back!"

" _I cannot do that. Recalibrating."_

Beca's desperate. Options - what are her options?! Maybe if she goes and wakes up Chloe and - "What if she looks at it, too?"

" _Once shortened, the expiration date cannot be extended."_

 _3 weeks._

"Why?!"

" _Everything happens for a reason."_

Beca doesn't remember when she started crying but she feels the heat of tears on her face and the blurring of her vision as she stares at the screen in her hand. "Come on, come on!" She shakes it, willing it to revert to its original five years. "When will it stop?"

" _It will stabilize once recalibration has completed. Recalibrating."_

"Stop, stop it! Just, stop! Please stop, please, just -"

 _20 hours._

It chimes and begins counting down from 20 hours.

Beca's hand drops to her side and she stares at the sky. It's over. And it's not enough time to figure out how to cheat it.

She had the perfect relationship with the perfect person and of course, she managed to fuck it up.

* * *

Beca spends the rest of the night on the couch trying to reconcile what happened.

She couldn't be content living in paradise.

She betrayed her promise to Chloe.

She has less than a day remaining with her.

She tries to smile when Chloe shuffles over to her in the morning to give her a sleepy nuzzle and a warm hug and a soft kiss.

Chloe hesitates when she pulls back. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She tries to will her smile to seem genuine. "I'm good."

Chloe doesn't seem to fully believe her but she doesn't push it. Instead, she kisses her again and wanders off to make their morning coffee.

* * *

They go to the pond that day. Beca had asked Chloe what she wanted to do; she wants to spend their last day together watching Chloe be happy, because when Chloe's happy the world is happy.

She watches Chloe skipping rocks - she really seems to enjoy it, and she always gets really into it, her arm whipping harder every time to see how far she can skip it.

"Have you ever had more than four skips?" Chloe asks as she watches the ripples on the pond. "Or less than four?"

Beca doesn't answer She's nervous to speak. If she speaks, she might cry.

Chloe turns when she doesn't answer. "Becs? What's on your mind?"

She shakes her head. "Nothing," she manages but she knows her voice is tight. She moves up to stand next to Chloe and give it a try, see if she can get more than four skips, or fewer than four. Anything to not have to tell Chloe what's wrong.

She winds up and sends it flying - one, two, three, four.

"See?" Chloe says, sounding a little exasperated by the result, and then she's hugging Beca from the side. Beca knows she knows something's wrong. Part of her wishes Chloe would make her tell her.

A bigger part of her is grateful she isn't.

* * *

Beca doesn't realize she's hanging back while they walk home until she sees Chloe stopped ahead of her waiting in a Hub common area. She'd been too busy watching the minutes tick by on her disc.

"Okay, seriously. What's up?" Chloe asks. She's not happy, and Beca hasn't seen Chloe unhappy since the morning after their first first date.

Only this time, she's the one that's making her unhappy.

She figures there's no sense in lying to her. It's ending anyway. She betrayed her so the least she can do now is tell Chloe the truth. She takes a deep breath. "I looked."

Chloe's brow furrows. "Looked at what?" Beca's silence is her answer and Chloe's face shifts into sadness. "We promised we wouldn't look. We shook on it."

"Don't you want to know what it said?" Beca's starting to feel flippant and she knows it's her defense mechanisms kicking in trying to protect her from the looming heartbreak.

"No!" Chloe throws her hands up. "That was the point!"

"Well, it's almost done anyway." Beca kicks at the floor.

Chloe's hands fall and she steps closer to grab one of Beca's. "How almost done?"

"We've got, like, an hour."

She watches it register with Chloe. Sees the emotions hit one by one: shock, anger, devastation, betrayal, and Chloe's starting to cry. "Why didn't you tell me when you found out?"

"I didn't want to ruin today." That was the truth. She wanted one last perfect day with Chloe.

"And _this_ didn't ruin it?"

"It was supposed to be five years, but…" she takes a breath. "I looked at it, something happened, it kept going down."

It's anger's turn and Chloe shoves a finger into her chest as she says, "So _you_ broke it?"

They're starting to draw the attention of other people passing by and Beca tries to ignore them. "No! No, no, no. I mean, I don't - I don't know, I -"

Chloe's looking at her with her big, tear-filled, beautiful blue eyes and Beca feels the heartbreak starting. "Why did you have to look at it?"

She can't. She can't lose her. There has to be another option; she can't let a fucking turd-shaped iPhone ruin her life. "What if we can cheat the system? We can figure it out, we -"

"Why did you have to look at it?" Chloe repeats, staring at her.

"Because I love you." It's the first time Beca's said it to Chloe and she doesn't hesitate. She only wishes she'd said it sooner.

Chloe just groans. "And that wasn't enough?!" She doesn't say it back.

"That's not the point! Yeah, I looked, but that's not the point!"

Chloe's glaring at her and Beca wants to die all over again. "You sure about that?"

"You're more pissed about that than how we're out of time?!"

"Yes, because we promised!" Chloe pushes her but it's not forceful and she almost clings to Beca instead of letting go with a huff. Like she'd almost forgotten she was supposed to be angry right now.

"Listen." Chloe turns away from her and Beca grabs her by the arms to make her look at her. "Chloe, Listen. What if we just ignore it?"

"We can't!"

"We'll fuck The System. We'll just fuck it."

"Yeah? And do what?"

"We'll…" Her brain races. "We'll jump out. Climb over the wall. Get out of here."

"There's nothing out there unless The System takes us there!"

"How do you know?" Everyone is staring. "Chloe."

Chloe shakes her head. "You ruined this." She starts walking away. "You ruined it."

She's gone.

Chloe's walking away from her.

Beca hears a crackling behind her and she turns to see a Watcher in his all-blacks holding a taser toward her threateningly. "Hey, dude. It's fine," she lies like she hadn't been having a screaming fight in the middle a crowded room about fucking The System. "It's nothing."

Just like her relationship with Chloe. She turns to catch up with her.

"Chloe, wait."

"Don't follow me."

"Chloe, I'm sorry!"

* * *

" _Everything happens for a reason."_

"Yeah?" Beca sniffs loudly from where she's curled up on the floor at the foot of their bed hoping Chloe will show up before it's time to leave. "What fucking reason?"

" _The system will be assessing your reaction to the painful premature termination of a treasured relationship and will adjust and improve its profile of your eventual chosen one accordingly."_

Beca wants to smash the fucking thing. "Yeah, that helps a lot."

" _Thank you."_

She breaks down again and talks through the tears. She doesn't have to keep her shit together for a fucking A.I. device. "I swear to fucking God. I want to just climb that damn wall. I don't care if I get eaten by bears in the woods."

" _That would violate the rules of The System."_

"The fucking System!"

" _Failure to comply with The System may result in banishment."_

"I know - Jesus, I know! Will you just let me be angry? Can you give me that?!"

" _You must vacate your current living quarters when the time expires."_

"Yeah, like I didn't know that?"

She leaves when the time expires.

Chloe never comes back.

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	4. Chapter 4

Chloe's stuck in a loop.

More flings. Pointless. Meaningless. Short.

She tries to hold their hand at night when they are in bed together, but most of them pull it away after a few seconds.

She feels broken. Sickened by the parade of men and women she shares a bed with month after month.

None of them are Beca.

* * *

"I mean, if I hadn't looked, we'd have been together years," Beca says as she stares at the ceiling. "She was...you know when you meet someone and you just know? You just know that -"

"Think we can maybe fuck soon? My tongue's going to fall off."

She looks down at the man between her legs and just shrugs. She's numb anyway. What's it matter? "Yeah, fine."

* * *

"And after all that, she never even apologized. Not once."

Turns out, the guy had his own heartbreak story. He's sharing it while he thrusts into her, and the sex is more like an afterthought to the conversation. She's honestly surprised he's still hard since he's almost crying.

"That's terrible," she says with sincerity. She knows neither of them is into this or each other. She might as well _try_ to get something out of it. "You care if I think about her?"

He pauses. "If I can think about mine?"

She nods. "Deal."

It's better after that.

* * *

"One, two, three, four." Chloe watches the rock disappear into the pond. She winds up, focuses and tries again. "One, two, three, four." Always four, no matter how hard she tries. Even when she barely tries at all, it's still four. And it's a cool but not cold 65º - just like it is every day. Just like it was when she was walking here with Beca. Like it was months earlier before she saw Beca that second time.

Always 65º and mostly sunny. She doesn't remember a day that was anything but that. She doesn't remember a day that she wasn't in The Hub.

It's distracting her. Well, no. That's a lie. Nothing can distract her from the fact that she was supposed to get five years with Beca and it fell apart in less than five minutes.

She's not mad anymore; she just misses Beca with every shred of her being.

She's about to skip another when her device chimes. She fishes it out of her coat pocket.

" _Congratulations, Chloe. Your Ultimate Match has been identified. Your Pairing Day is tomorrow."_

She stops. Beca _was_ her Ultimate Match, and fuck The System for thinking anyone else could be. She's done being angry at Beca; now she's sad and lonely and even understands why Beca did what she did. She just wishes they could roll back time and try again.

"Ultimate as in, The One?"

" _That is correct."_

"And we meet tomorrow?"

" _That is correct. Tomorrow you'll be coupled with your Ultimate Match and together you will leave this place forever."_

"Okay," she says with a wary - and weary - exhale. "Are you allowed to tell me anything about them? Do I...maybe know them already?" She clings to a sliver of hope.

" _Negative."_ Oh. _"There is one more thing."_

"And what's that?"

" _Prior to Pairing Day, you have been allocated a short farewell period with an individual of your choosing."_

"A farewell period? I get to say goodbye to someone?" Her brain's already spinning. Beca wanted to break the system. Beca wanted to -

" _That is correct. Data shows this can help provide psychological closure."_

"Beca," she says quickly. "I choose Beca."

" _Your choice has been registered."_

She holds her breath and waits for further instructions or terms and conditions of the upcoming encounters but there are none.

"Wait, where are we meeting?"

" _Usual booth, 7:30 pm."_

"Right." She hesitates, thinking. "Coach?"

" _Yes, Chloe?"_

"Count to four." She spins and flings the disc toward the pond and hears it count to four before it sinks.

* * *

She strides through The Hub with purpose toward the restaurant.

Beca's waiting for her and she knows it. Even if Beca was mad at her for how she reacted to the news about their expiration date, Beca had to be there. It was required.

She sees her before Beca's noticed her since she's fidgeting with her hands in her lap, but then she looks up their eyes meet.

Beca's standing and Chloe breaks into a sprint until she slams into Beca. Her arms wrap around her and she feels Beca's do the same and they're kissing, hot and passionate and desperate and she can hear people whispering around them but she doesn't care because Beca's in her arms and Beca's kissing her back.

"Wait, wait," Beca says when they break for air and sits down and pulls Chloe with her to sit right next to her in the booth. "How long do we have?" She pulls out her device and Chloe leans in to kiss her neck while it loads.

It's counting down from 90 seconds and Beca slams it on the table. "The System set my Pairing Day for tomorrow."

Chloe pulls back and looks at her. "Me, too."

"Okay. Okay. I don't want whoever The System says the one is, okay? I want _you_."

"I want you, too," Chloe breathes and kisses her again.

" _Failure to comply with The System may result in banish-"_

"Fuck off!" Beca yells at it and flips it over on the table face-down.

"Beca, look at me." She does. "Can you remember where you were before you came here?" Beca's thinking but shakes her head. "You can't, can you?"

"No."

"Me neither."

Beca looks confused. "Why can't I remember anything?"

"It's a test," Chloe whispers. "Do you remember the first night, I mean the _first_ night that we were together? How did you feel?"

Beca almost laughs but she looks a bit discombobulated. "I felt safe, happy, comfortable. It felt right. Like something...locked into place. Like we'd met before."

Chloe nods. Beca's getting it. "Like it had happened before and it'll happen again like it's happened a thousand times over and over again. Do you know what I mean?!"

Beca's nodding along, eyes wide as they keep searching Chloe's for more answers. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

"Ever since we met, this world has been toying with us. It's trying to keep us apart. It's a test, I swear it is. And us rebelling together has to do with passing it."

"We've...we've got to fuck it. All of it."

Chloe laughs; Beca gets it now. "Yes! We have to fuck all this and go."

"Over the wall."

"Right over it. No matter what's out there."

Beca's jaw sets firm and she glances around. "Okay."

"So let's go." Chloe grabs her hand in both of her own and pulls it up to kiss it.

"Yeah." Beca smiles. "Yeah, let's go."

Chloe smiles back and they hear Beca's device chime that their 90 seconds is up. The entire restaurant falls quiet and she looks around; every single person is staring at them. She slides out of the booth, pulling Beca with her.

They're walking toward the entrance and a Watcher's coming right at them, big, mean-looking, and Chloe doesn't stop until he pulls out his taser, turns it on, and points it at her.

It's a test.

It's all a test.

She walks up to him. Slowly. Cautiously. Lifts up her hand. She knows it's a test. That it won't hurt. Presses her palm right into the jumping purple beam of electricity.

It falls silent beneath her hand.

She shoves the Watcher's hand down and every person in the room freezes. Like time is standing still.

"Come on," she says, grabbing Beca's hand again. She almost runs, but then...no. No one is moving. No one is chasing them. Everything is suspended. She weaves them through the people who are nothing more than pillars now, and when they get to the stairs, she can't help it.

She starts running.

Excited.

She knows this is it. This is what they have to do.

They run out the front door and toward the wall and along it until they find a utility ladder extending up it toward the night sky and Beca boosts her up to get her going.

They climb, hand over hand, rail after rail until the lights of The Hub are tiny below them and then the lights are going out, section by section, falling into a blackout.

She watches as the blackness starts to move, an undulating, pixelating sea pouring over the city and the park, chasing them until it hits the wall and it climbs the wall, higher and higher, eating the ladder they're on and she's not scared.

This is it.

It consumes them and suddenly she's in a void.

Beca's with her, holding her hand.

She hears the chime of a device above her and she looks; it displays 998.

They aren't alone in the void. The longer she looks around, the more people she sees.

But not just people.

It's them.

Hundreds and hundreds of copies of Beca and her doing different things, wearing different clothes, all with numbers hovering over their heads. All looking just as baffled as she feels. 548 is holding hands, and that Beca is laughing.

366 is hugging and that Chloe is crying.

905 is talking to each other and pointing at everyone around them.

And then they're all dissolving, as though being summoned to the sky. She watches them go, couple by couple, and follows their path into the giant ring above them, like a sky-sized face of her device, counting up and up and up.

 _97\. 201. 519. 632. 814._

 _1000 simulations completed._

 _998 rebellions logged._

* * *

Chloe wanders around the club. She's looking for someone, but she's not quite sure who. Last night, her app told her to be there tonight, at this very time. She checks her phone again and the date and time on her screen disappears to be replaced with a green circle.

 _99.8% match_ , it reads, and a face appears in the circle; a smirking face of a brunette with killer eyeliner skills who looks like she was forced to pose for the photo.

She looks up, trying to not be obvious that she's checking the face of everyone in the club who might be her.

And then she sees her at the bar finishing a swig of a beer, looking at her phone. She looks up and sees Chloe looking at her.

And smiles.


End file.
